An important academic book on Tolkien!
As many of you no doubt already know, for lo these last several years, inzilbeth_liz has been hard at work on an academic treatise on the character of Aragorn. I'm very pleased to announce that it's ready to go and will be launched Saturday, August 11, at Redesdale Hall, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire for 10am to 5pm. Would that I could go to the party, but it's some 5,000 miles away (if not more!) so I'll just have to add to the party here on my LJ today. :)
Whether or not you call yourself an Aragorn fan, this is an important book to add to the list of the many wonderful academic studies of Tolkien's writings. Aragorn as a character was rather slow to evolve in Tolkien's mind, and in some ways that kept the character from achieving quite the prominence and certainly the depth in the books that he might have had Tolkien more quickly firmed him up from the original idea of a hobbit with deformed feet and wooden shoes to the great king he was destined to become. There is plenty of evidence that Aragorn, son of Arathorn, has a pivotal role in the history of Middle-earth, but it's very seldom addressed in literary examinations, and rarely with any depth. This book fills that gap by bringing together the influences that went into the character's creation, both story internal and external, gathering up every spare bit of detail about Aragorn from all of Tolkien's books, from The Lord of the Rings a trilogy to the Appendices to Unfinished Tales, The Silmarillion, as well as History of Middle-earth and Letters, and does so with wonderfully readable thoroughness. (I emphasize "readable" because it is truly an accessible work for any Tolkien reader with at least a minimal understanding of the story. No dense, dull, academic obfuscation in this one... in fact, this sentence is probably harder to parse!)
So, for all the particulars, including the full cover including the back cover text with a recommendation from Angela Gardner, author of Black and White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien, see Liz' own post here.
The book can be ordered from the following sites:
Amazon.co.uk
ADC Books/ABE books (which is the publisher and publisher's book catalog; this link takes you directly to Liz' book ordering page)
It's not available through US markets yet, but it will ship to the US.
Whether or not you call yourself an Aragorn fan, this is an important book to add to the list of the many wonderful academic studies of Tolkien's writings. Aragorn as a character was rather slow to evolve in Tolkien's mind, and in some ways that kept the character from achieving quite the prominence and certainly the depth in the books that he might have had Tolkien more quickly firmed him up from the original idea of a hobbit with deformed feet and wooden shoes to the great king he was destined to become. There is plenty of evidence that Aragorn, son of Arathorn, has a pivotal role in the history of Middle-earth, but it's very seldom addressed in literary examinations, and rarely with any depth. This book fills that gap by bringing together the influences that went into the character's creation, both story internal and external, gathering up every spare bit of detail about Aragorn from all of Tolkien's books, from The Lord of the Rings a trilogy to the Appendices to Unfinished Tales, The Silmarillion, as well as History of Middle-earth and Letters, and does so with wonderfully readable thoroughness. (I emphasize "readable" because it is truly an accessible work for any Tolkien reader with at least a minimal understanding of the story. No dense, dull, academic obfuscation in this one... in fact, this sentence is probably harder to parse!)
So, for all the particulars, including the full cover including the back cover text with a recommendation from Angela Gardner, author of Black and White Ogre Country: The Lost Tales of Hilary Tolkien, see Liz' own post here.
The book can be ordered from the following sites:
Amazon.co.uk
ADC Books/ABE books (which is the publisher and publisher's book catalog; this link takes you directly to Liz' book ordering page)
It's not available through US markets yet, but it will ship to the US.